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The prices of gold and silver bounced back and rose yesterday following the recent FOMC decision to expand QE3 as the Fed will start purchasing long term treasuries at a pace of $45 billion per month. This purchase program is on top of the Fed's $40 billion purchase program of mortgage backed securities. Will gold and silver continue to rise today? On today's agenda: EU Economic Summit, LIBOR Rate of Swiss National Bank, SNB Press Conference, ECB Monthly Bulletin, U.S. Jobless Claims Weekly update, U.S. Retail Sales Report, U.S PPI and China flash Manufacturing PMI.

On Wednesday, the price of gold rose by 0.48% to $1,716.6; Silver price also increased by 2.28% to $33.71. During the month, gold rose by 0.33%; silver, by 1.51%.

FOMC Expands QE3

The FOMC announced it will expand QE3 by start purchasing at the beginning of 2013 long term treasuries securities at a rate of $45 billion per month. This plan will substitute operation twist and will come in addition to the current $40 billion purchase plan of mortgage backed securities. The Fed also announced it will keep the short term rates low until the rate of unemployment will fall below 6.5%.

The table below shows the bullion markets' reactions to the news of the FOMC during 2012. As seen, in the September FOMC meeting bullion rates hiked on the day of the announcement. This time, the prices of gold and silver rose by a lower rate than they did back in September. This could imply this positive effect will dissipate today.

On Today's Agenda

U.S. Jobless Claims Weekly update: in the recent update the jobless claims declined again by 25k to reach 370k; this upcoming weekly update may affect the U.S dollar;

U.S. PPI: in the latest report regarding October this index for finished goods edged down by 0.2% compared with September's rate but rose by 2.3% in the last 12 months; this news might affect commodities;

U.S. Retail Sales Report: this report will presents the monthly changes in the retail sales and food services for November; in the recent report regarding October, the retail sales declined by 0.3% from the previous month;